David LaMotte
From David:
Hey friends,
I hope you can join me for this digital concert a week from today, 7PM Eastern on Saturday, August 22. I am hoping I can talk Mason into playing a couple of songs with me, too. 🙂
Every week, Mason and Deanna and my Mom and Dad pick a movie to watch together, in different houses. We stop halfway through and check in, then chat afterward. It’s almost like having a visit. I suppose a concert could be like that, too, so if you have some friends who you think might enjoy the event, feel free to invite them. You can register for it here:
https://www.crowdcast.io/e/frommyhouse
I hope y’all are holding up OK. Mason is getting ready to start sixth grade (Middle School!) on Tuesday, in what will surely be the strangest school year of his life. He is cautiously excited, and we are doing just fine.
Today, some glamorous rockstar house cleaning, but next Saturday, music! See you then.
David
“Charm, stories, humor, insightful songs, sweet voice, and dazzling guitar ability.” ~ BBC Radio Belfast
David LaMotte is an award-winning songwriter, speaker and writer. He has performed over 3000 concerts and released twelve full-length CDs of primarily original music, touring in all of the fifty states, as well as five of the seven continents. The Boston Globe writes that his music “pushes the envelope with challenging lyrics and unusual tunings, but he also pays homage to folk tradition,” while BBC Radio Belfast lauds his “charm, stories, humour, insightful songs, sweet voice and dazzling guitar ability.”
His dense speaking and workshop calendar has included presenting at the PC(USA) Mission to the United Nations, keynoting peace conferences in Berlin and at the Scottish Parliament, as well as offering the baccalaureate for 2016 graduates of Columbia Seminary. As a keynote speaker, and then Critical Conversations Coordinator, he has facilitated conversations about race, privilege, and positive change for thousands of college students at the Montreat College Conference. His TEDx talk on what music can teach us about peacemaking was published in 2018.
David has published three books, including two illustrated children’s books. The first based on his award-winning children’s song SS Bathtub and the second, White Flour, tells the true story of a creative, effective, and whimsical response to a Ku Klux Klan march in Knoxville, Tennessee by a group called the Coup Clutz Clowns. His most recent book, Worldchanging 101: Challenging the Myth of Powerlessness, is being used as a textbook in universities in the United States and Australia.
LaMotte’s latest solo album, The Other Way Around, features musicians from every inhabited continent, and guest appearances from Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Nicky Sanders and Graham Sharp of the Steep Canyon Rangers, and bluegrass legend Tim O’Brien, among a large cast of musicians. It was released in September of 2016, and debuted at #8 on the Folk-DJ chart.
Touring full-time for over twenty-five years, LaMotte has developed a large and loyal following around the world. His music has been honored with numerous awards and artist grants, and has been featured on dozens of artist compilations. Notably, his song Dark and Deep was included on Songs Inspired By Literature, Chapter One, a benefit CD to raise money for adult literacy. Other artists on that CD include Suzanne Vega, Grace Slick, Aimee Mann and Bruce Springsteen. Several independent films feature David’s music, and it has been heard on the Today Show and the Showtime television series This American Life.
LaMotte is currently also working as part of a musical trio, Abraham Jam, an interfaith band made up of a Christian (David), a Muslim (Dawud Wharnsby, and a Jew (Billy Jonas). Their debut album, Abraham Jam Live, was released in 2018, and their studio album, White Moon, was released in 2019. He is also the creator of Let’s Be Neighbors, a website based on a sign he hung on his house, and rooted in the idea that we seldom reject each other into making more compassionate decisions. Let’s Be Neighbors banners are now hanging across the United States, including a large one on Abraham Lincoln’s church in Springfield, Illinois.
As a result of his work with schools in Guatemala, he was named a “Madison World Changer” by his undergraduate alma mater, James Madison University, and in 2019, he was awarded an E-chievement Award by the syndicated radio show E-town. David makes his home in Black Mountain, North Carolina, with his wife Deanna and son Mason. He is currently touring extensively, speaking and performing, and writing his next book, tentatively titled, “Harmony: What Music Can Teach Us About Peacemaking In a Troubled Time.”